The Final Battle
by Orphia
Summary: Fairy Tail is facing the final battle, and everyone must play a part. They need victory, at any price. Juvia is alone on the battlefield, facing a foe she cannot possibly defeat. Will she risk losing herself?
1. Chapter 1

The Spriggan Twelve were incredible.

Awe inspiring.

Terrifying.

They were the most powerful wizards in the world, even without Zeref.

With him they were unstoppable.

But Fairy Tail kept fighting.

They had the Fairy Tactician, they had their home to defend. They had each other.

The one thing a Fairy Tail wizard cannot do is let down their friends.

Juvia knew this. She would live by it. She would die by it.

As the invasion continued the guild had split, some to help the injured, some to take down the footsoldiers. Some to fight the Twelve.

Originally Juvia had been on a team, with Gray and Cana and Ever.

Now she was alone.

There had been a call for aid. Something had happened to Laxus and Fried. Juvia didn't know what, but Ever had gone to help. Cana had been sent to summon Gildarts. Gray had stayed with her. Then… Gray…

Zeref had arrived on the battlefield, and something had happened to Natsu. Something strange.

Something that had made Gray look more horrified than she remembered ever seeing his face, even when he had cried out in his dreams at night. Even when he thought no one could see him and she saw the pain in his eyes. He looked broken. He had told her to hold on, to stay back. And he had gone to help Natsu, or whatever was left of him.

That left Juvia alone. Alone when Brandish struck.

The initial shockwave threw her at least 200m. She landed with a splash in the waves. A small mercy, she was unharmed. Water would never hurt Juvia of the Deep.

"All alone, little girl? How boring." She said, rising in stature till she was half the size of Magnolia Cathedral, or half the size it had been, before today.

"I don't mind crushing ants, so to speak, but I'd been promised more sport." She glanced at her nails imperiously. "Not that it matters anymore. Not with END activated." She gave a yawn.

"It pays to be thorough I suppose."

Juvia remained silent. She had been focussing on the water around her, willing it to lend her strength, trying to claim some small fraction of the ocean's power.

Brandish leant down to pick her up. And with a slicing jet of water, received what amounted to little more than a paper cut. Juvia willed herself further out to sea.

"That's it, little bug! I was considering keeping you as a pet, but now I think I have to kill you." Brandish waded further out. She was so huge now, that tidal waves came from her every movement. Any other opponent would have been swamped and battered by the waves. Not Juvia. Each splash which washed over her gave her more strength.

Seeing this, the giant took a deep breath in and blew at little Juvia, creating a chasm in the waves. In the shallower areas, the sea bed was visible, littered with confused crabs and flailing fish. Juvia was forced down by the strength of the hurricane, incapable of movement.

"That's better." Brandish smirked, twisting one finger in her hair as she reached down and plucked Juvia from the sand. "And now to crush you."

There was an incredible shudder as the whole city (or what was left of it) quaked down to the bedrock. Brandish looked over her shoulder carelessly. "Oh, it looks like your little boyfriend's dead. Isn't that a pity?" She smiled sweetly. She stared down at the limp body in her hand, wondering briefly if it would be better to crush her, tear her in half, or simply snap her neck.

Juvia glared up at her opponent, her eyes a perfect mixture of fury and despair. She gave a shriek like the call of a peregrine falcon and in that moment, she drew on all her power. On everything. She wanted nothing but to KILL THEM ALL.

Brandish had taken Juvia out of the ocean, but now the ocean was coming to her. Drawn like the tides, but oh so much faster, the sea rose to meet her. Suddenly the limp figure was gone from her fingers, pulled away with all the force of a whirlpool. Rising in front of her was another colossus. A woman made entirely from water.

"Water body, ultimate attack!"

Blue light shone throughout the creature, and it was Juvia. Panicked Brandish tried to use her magic to shrink her down again, but as she did so, more water kept pouring in to replenish her.

The mouth opened, and in a voice like whale song said scornfully "Even you cannot reduce the ocean. We have no limit." Her hair was a waterfall, her mouth the crest of a wave. Whirlpools formed her eyes as she grew greater still, greater and greater.

Brandish likewise increased her size. "A little more even, very well little mouse, this cat likes to play with her food." She drew her sword, just as large as she was, and took a swing at the being before her.

It sliced right through, making no visible difference to the figure before her. She growled and tried again. Again no difference. The Juvia-thing cocked its head, then reached out with her hand to shove her to the floor. Brandish just about kept her balance, soaked to the bone. Furious, she threw her weapon aside and tried to slap the watery monstrosity.

Have you ever belly flopped into a swimming pool?

Or seen how fast a bullet stops in water?

Or what happens to someone who falls from a great height into the waves?

Brandish gave a yelp of pain, there was a sickening crunch as her hand bent backwards in an entirely unnatural way. Her eyes narrowed. She hissed then moved her arms in a strange balletic pose.

"Soul Blaster!" she cried, firing a bolt of what looked like pure magic straight for the heart of the beast before her.

"Ice-make mega shield!" said a voice from that wave crested mouth. It was not Juvia's voice, nor the sing song whale voice of the ocean.

Rising from the sea a wall of ice rose, taller and taller, absorbing the blast before shattering into a million, billion shards, as light as snowflakes.

"That's not you magic!" shrieked Brandish, cut and bruised from the debris of the blast, "You shouldn't be able to do that!"

The water creature, that no longer looked so Juvia-shaped, becoming rougher, like a humanoid clay figure, seemed to smile.

"We can do anything. We can certainly defeat you."

There was a drop in pressure, as all the magic in the vicinity concentrated at the heart of the creature. When it next opened its mouth, it seemed like all three voices were shouting, together in unison, the water mage, the ocean thing and the other one. "Ultimate Unison- Ice Typhoon!"

The ocean obeyed their command. Water was swirling and twisting, broiling, scalding. Waves were bashing Brandish off her feet, whilst all the while ice cut and bit at her, a rose with a thousand thorns wrapping its incessant way around her. The waves rose to form a cyclone around her, till neither was visible. When they cleared, Brandish was defeated, and the water figure sank back to the deeps.

There was a silence.


	2. Chapter 2

The battle had ended, but not without loss. Natsu was weak, Erza almost worse. Gajeel was barely conscious, and Fried had used so much power it was touch and go if he would make it through, and Laxus had not left him since. Some of Lucy's spirits were so traumatised she doubted they would return again. Makarov had finally fallen, defending his children to the last. And the first was gone, taking her lover with her beyond the veil. Many more were still missing or gravely wounded. Alzack had last been seen surrounded and outnumbered, and Jet was nowhere to be found. Mira, Lisanna and Ever were still searching for Elfman.

Fairy Tail had won, but they could not survive another such victory.

Now they were just trying to find their friends, to reunite whoever was left. To protect their own. To mourn.

They had been searching for hours.

Gray scoured the shore, where Juvia had last been seen, battling Brandish. They had seen the outcome, had bound Brandish, removed her magic, but Juvia was nowhere to be seen.

He limped desperately through the surf, calling out her name.

"Juvia!" he called, his voice hoarse with the effort "Juvia!"

There was no answer.

He fell to his knees in frustration, and let his head fall into the surf. He had let her down, left her alone. Now she was gone. He lost her like he lost anyone he gave a damn about. Anyone he thought of as home.

"Gray-sama?" he heard a voice, oh so faintly. Instantly he lifted his head, his hair wet with sea-spray, turned to find her. Hope rose in his soul.

There was nothing. Hallucinating her voice. He sunk down again.

"Gray?" the voice, her voice, a little fainter this time.

It seemed so close.

Then it struck him. The voice was coming from the waves themselves.

"Juvia?" The water lapped around him, softly, almost caressing. She was the water. Of course. She was the water. How could he solve this? Why had she not reformed? How dilute was she, mixed with all those gallons of ocean?

Juvia herself could barely think at all. How could she, with a mind so splintered? She had spread herself too thin, she couldn't get back. She didn't know how. Panic threatened to consume her, she was losing herself. She was fading, her identity lost like ripples. She did not even know her own name. She did not know if she had a name.

 _You can Juvia._

There was another voice amongst her thoughts, pulling on her.

 _I can help you. You need to hold on._

Juvia was trying, she was trying so hard.

"Juvia!" Gray was imploring the ocean now, begging it to give her up.

 _Focus on his voice now, Juvia. Use it as an anchor._

Juvia did as the voice said. It was soft and gentle and kind, but firm. She put all her efforts on thinking of Gray, of his voice. Her memories converged on that voice. Slowly the molecules of Juvia began to congregate to sift themselves from the ceaseless ocean. She could think a little better now, she tried to remember her old shape, tried to remember what it was like to be a human as the particles around her tried to force her apart, to think only of the rhythm of the waves, of the cycle of the moon.

 _You have to hold on!_

The voice leant her new strength. Where Gray still knelt, where a single tear touched the water, a shape began to form. At first, just a silhouette, an indentation in the waves. Then it became more tangible, features became visible. As Gray watched in wonder, the water formed gradually into the sleeping shape of Juvia Lockser of Fairy Tail.

But she was still not flesh and blood.

 _Good girl Juvia, you're almost there! Just a little more._

But Juvia was exhausted, it was taking all she had to keep from dissolving back into the sea. She couldn't do it. She couldn't give any more! She had nothing left.

The figure began to shift, to fade.

"Juvia! Hold on!" Gray tried to grab the shifting currents that made up what remained of Juvia Lockser.

 _Hold on!_

The water around her pulled less strongly, the voice faded a little as she felt more strength flowing through her.

 _You can do it Juvia. I believe in you,_

As Juvia felt herself grow stronger, the voice weakened.

"Come on Juvia!"

 _Come on Juvia, my student needs you…_

It was barely left now, more like a memory.

He tried to beg once more. "I need you Juvia, please…"

The waves lapped against the shore, and Juvia became more and more. The pounding of the tides became the beating of a heart, the swirl of the currents, blood pumping through veins. She was battered, and weary, but she was human, and she was real.

Gray hugged the unconscious form of Juvia Lockser close to his scarred and wounded chest. His shoulders shaking as he held her.

"You couldn't go yet," he murmured soothingly, pressing his lips to the crown of her head. "I hadn't given you an answer."

Her eyes slowly flickered open, and hesitantly, she smiled up at him, through laboured breath. His tear streaked face looked own on her, as if for the first time.

He smiled back at her, and all was right with the world.


End file.
